Despite Apple's reluctance to admit that it is working on its own electric car product, several evidences continue to pile up. It appears that in December, the tech giant registered three auto related domain names which further fueled speculations claiming that the company is indeed working on its own car product under the radar.
According to Mac Rumors, the three domain names registered in December 2015 are apple.auto, apple.cars and apple.car. While some tech analysts say that the domains were acquired to be used for Apple CarPlay, majority of the tech community still believe that Apple is working into something bigger.
A handful of reports have already hinted that Apple has put up a secretive team consisting of hundreds of experts working on an electric vehicle. Rumors claim that the project is expecting to release its first product by 2019 or 2020.
Apple does not deny nor confirm the rumors about its electric car projects. However, there are evidence pointing that the Cupertino-based company is at the very least exploring into the auto industry. Apple is rumored to be negotiating with the California DMV in securing permit to operate a secure Bay Area testing facility for autonomous and connected vehicles.
Apple has been steadily upgrading its roster of engineers and talents. The company has been very aggressive in recruiting talents coming from big shot companies like Ford, Tesla, Samsung, GM, Nvidia and A123 Systems. Even the electric motorcycle startup company Mission Motors was forced to cease its operations when Apple mass hired its employees.
Perhaps the most glaring evidence of Apple's plan into entering the motoring market is the existence of Project Titan. Although not much is known what the secretive project is working on, experts and analysts believe that it has something to do with Apple's electric car project.
There are reports claiming about internal strife between several Apple divisions as the tech giant slowly funnels more manpower towards its secret project. Sources who are familiar with the issue told The Register that Apple shifted a significant number of staff towards it auto division that it has prompted senior managers in other divisions to complain about the apparent loss of talent from their team.